“As always with these topics, we will talk about things when they are ready to be talked about and ready to be announced,” Heins said in January. “There are other constituents in the process that need to be involved -- if there would be anything.”

BlackBerry shares increased 14 percent to $14.90 at closing in New York after news of Lenovo's interest got out.

BlackBerry, formerly Research in Motion (RIM), has been trying to make a comeback after losing market share to the likes of Apple's iPhone and Android-powered mobile devices. Even government agencies, which traditionally used BlackBerry phones, have started using iOS and Android products.

BlackBerry introduced its latest line of software and devices -- BlackBerry 10 (or BB 10) -- in January of this year. At that time, it revealed the BlackBerry Z10 and the Q10 phones.

The Z10 finally came to the U.S. today as AT&T begins its presale for $199 (with a two-year contract). The phone actually ships March 22.

It remains to be seen whether BB10 will save BlackBerry, but Heins seems optimistic. He was recently quoted saying that Z10 sales in Europe were "encouraging."

BB still has a solid patent portfolio. While Lenovo's largely managed to avoid the current rounds of lawfare if they do decide to enter the phone business and expand their tablet presence having a portfolio of their own would be beneficial.

I do agree with you to a certain extent, but stats speak for themselves. If you look at actual historical data from Bloomberg or FactSet, it's obvious that 70-80% of such patent-related acquisitions destroy value. I neither own Lenovo nor am short BBRY.

It's just another way for some clueless Silicon Valley investment banker to "close the deal" to earn some transaction fees.

@T2k - might come as a surprise, but I'm in the heart of Silicon Valley. Decent attempt at generalizing your views though. To paraphrase Warren Buffet, when it comes to investing, think with your brain, not your heart. Your love for BBRY is obvious... too bad they haven't executed squat. Lenovo would be much better off diversifying itself with a portfolio of handsets based on Android and WP rather than wasting money on an acquisition.

There's one scenario in which such an acquisition may make sense: if both MS and Google (via Motorola) start shipping their own phone hardware. However, as I referenced above, most such acquisitions fail... it could be lack of enthusiasm or resented workers, post-acquisition, but Lenovo may be better off synthesizing other strategies.

Google doesn't ship their own hardware via Motorola? Am I missing something here or does Motorola making their own phones not count??

And anyone can "invest". What set the good/great ones apart from the also-rans is the amount of money they manage to make. Since you obviously have no need in proving how successful you are at doing the above, everything you said is about as valid as the next anonymous person posting here.

Caveat Emptor -- every post on any forum is opinionated, regardless of the poster.

Google owns Motorola, so technically, it's already shipping its own hardware. What it doesn't do is ship Motorola-manufactured phones under the Nexus brand... but I won't be surprised if that changes within the next year or so.

My only point is that it's hard to justify such acquisitions when their failure rate is an astounding 70-80%. Ironically, Lenovo itself is an example -- just look at their Facebook pages for customer service issues on current hardware. Such things never used to happen under IBM :).

"Lenovo itself is an example -- just look at their Facebook pages for customer service issues on current hardware. Such things never used to happen under IBM :)."

Like hell IBM didnt have customer service issues. They had it and plenty. Any and all PC makers have it because people are idiots. As far as quality, it actually got better under Lenovo than it was under IBM (Which was always good). I know, I spent a good part of my career repairing thinkpads for the largest laptop repair company in the world at the time. It was a small company later bought by Solectron, which was then bought by Flextronics. Lenovo shocked everyone when quality didn't go to hell like it was expected. It actually got better. To the best of my knowledge Lenovo is the only company to buy another top name line like that and actually make it better. Usually companies buy other well known brand names like that and cheapen the quality to make a quick buck from the brand name.

Lenovo made the laptops and PCs for IBM, if you remember the T60 line like I had had both the Lenovo and IBM name on them, once they came out with the T61 generation the IBM name was finally dropped. Lenovo basically just bought the Thinkpad and Thinkcentre names and the associated tech.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA